Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
...

Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was invited to Brandeis to receive an honorary doctorate, but the same muslims who brought you 9/11 objected to her telling a crowd at Brandeis that maybe Islam is bad for women, so Brandeis dis invites her. Now, let’s clear one thing out of the way first. The speech which so offended the muslims, and which has caused Brandeis to cave, was public knowledge before the invitation. So this isn’t a situation in which she was dis invited for something she said after the invitation which made the invitation untenable. On the contrary, the statements were well-known before the invitation was extended and, controversial as the idea that Islam has its problems might be to some, what sets her apart is not her opinions but rather her willingness to speak them publicly. I only add this post because I was thrilled by the decision made by Brandeis to invite her, and I want to be on the record that Louis Brandeis himself would be appalled by the cancellation of the honor. Brandeis caves in to terrorism. No surprise there–Brandeis has long been a hot bed of anti-Jewish pro-muslim hostility before which Brandeis Administration bows and scrapes in the name of liberal “tolerance.” But dis inviting after the fact raises this from cowardice to just plain incompetence. Either Brandeis believes in concepts of justice, free speech and academic freedom, or it does not. Either its reputation matters, or it does not. We all now know where Brandeis stands. On the side of the cowed.